“I hope we’ll get out of this burned country soon,” said Dolly. “I think it’s as gloomy and depressing as it can be. I’d like to have seen this road before the fire—it must have been beautiful.”
“It certainly was, Dolly. And all this won’t last for many miles. We really ought to stop pretty soon to eat our dinner. What do you say, girls? Would you like to wait, and press on until we come to a more cheerful spot, where the trees aren’t all burnt!”
“Yes, oh, yes!” cried Margery Burton. “I think that would be ever so much nicer! Suppose we are a little hungry before we get our dinner? We can stand that for once.”
“I think we’ll enjoy our meal more. So we’ll keep on, then, if the rest of you feel the same way.”
Not a voice dissented from that proposition, either. Dolly was not the only one who was saddened by the picture of desolation through which they were passing. The road, of course, was deep in dust and ashes, and the air, still filled with the smoke that rose from the smouldering woods, was heavy and pungent, so that eyes were watery, and there was a good deal of coughing and sneezing.
“It’s a lucky thing there weren’t any houses along here, isn’t it?” said Margery. “I don’t see how they could possibly have been saved, do you, Miss Eleanor?”
“There’s no way that they could have saved them, unless, perhaps, by having a lot of city fire engines, and keeping them completely covered with water on all sides while the fire was burning. They call that a water blanket, but of course there’s no way that they could manage that up here.”
“What do you suppose started this fire, Miss Eleanor?”
“No one will ever know. Perhaps someone was walking in the woods, and threw a lighted cigar or cigarette in a pile of dry leaves. Perhaps some party of campers left their camp without being sure that their fire was out.”
“Just think of it—that all the trouble could be started by a little thing like that! It makes you realize what a good thing it is that we have to be careful never to leave a single spark behind when we’re leaving a fire, doesn’t it?”